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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28779081">For What Price is Friendship Bought</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Compass_Rose/pseuds/Compass_Rose'>Compass_Rose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Once Upon a Time AU (Sanders Sides Edition) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, But also healing this time, Crossover, Dark One Virgil, Gen, Physical hurt, Rated for that one word Remus uses in Chapter 1, ouat crossover, platonic relationships abound</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:01:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,270</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28779081</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Compass_Rose/pseuds/Compass_Rose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Remus Bugg, one the 'popular' kids, catches sight of Roman doodling during a particularly boring detention session, he pesters the strange newcomer into telling him the story behind the drawing. Reluctantly, Roman concedes, spinning what seems at first glance to be a fairy-tale--a story about a child who came too close to death, and a monster who agreed to save him, if only to repay a debt that was owed.</p><p>But every storyteller will choose to leave bits and pieces of the tale unspoken, if only to invoke an air of mystery about the legend they create. </p><p>And Roman?</p><p>Well, he sees no reason Remus ever has to know that this story was real.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Once Upon a Time AU (Sanders Sides Edition) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697473</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>For What Price is Friendship Bought</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Roman doodled lightly in the margins of his <em>American History </em>textbook. The assignment was to read from pages 1-94, a task which had held Roman’s attention for all of three minutes. At the front of the room, their teacher, Mr. Heath, was quietly marking papers with the same bland expression he always wore. He appeared to pay no attention to the quiet chatter floating around the room—which, considering he was supposed to be supervising Detention, seemed a little strange to Roman.</p><p>But then, Mr. Heath was a strange kind of man.</p><p>Shrugging, Roman turned back to the faint scribbles he was currently forced to occupy his time with. Most of them were innocuous—a forest here, a cottage there, swords and banners lining the top of the page. At the bottom, however, there was a caricature of a hooded man with intense eyes and thick, black lines marking his skin. Roman scratched his pencil gently against the paper, adding depth to the shadows swirling around the cloaked figure. The amateur artist was just making the finishing touches, when a hand jostled his arm.</p><p>Roman scowled at the ugly, dark line slicing through the picture he had so painstakingly created.  A shadow fell over his textbook, and he turned sullenly, meeting the eyes of Remus Bugg, one of the popular kids at Lockevale High—if only by association—and a general pain in Roman’s posterior.</p><p>“Whatcha up to, Roman?” The other teen laughed brightly, revealing a scrap of something brown caught between his teeth. “Practicing your Dr. Seuss illustrations?”</p><p>“None of your business, sewer rat,” Roman snapped. “Now get lost before you get us both in trouble—again!”</p><p>“Aw, what’s th’ matter, Romie? You upset cause you’re stuck in detention with the rest of us mere mortals? Hey, hey, here’s a little life advice, huh? The next time you decide to punch out some poor, helpless little nerd…don’t.” Remus laughed again, spraying spit in a wide arc over Roman’s desk.</p><p>Roman’s face puckered in disgust. “You are the vilest creature I have ever encountered. And for the record, that ‘poor, helpless little nerd’ was messing with one <em>my </em>friends. I told him to leave Logan alone. Multiple times. He did not. So, as far as I’m concerned, he got what he deserved.”</p><p>“Pity the teachers don’t agree with you, eh?” Remus smirked, leaning further into Roman’s personal space to peer at the textbook. Roman wrinkled his nose at the pungent aroma drifting from the other boy.</p><p>“Ugh, you reek. Seriously, do you ever take a bath?”</p><p>“Don’t change the subject, turd face. Who’s that?” He pointed toward the last picture Roman drew. “You like drawing demons in your spare time or sumthin’?”</p><p>“He’s not a demon,” Roman growled, moving to cover the image with his hand.</p><p>Sensing a chink in Prince Charming’s armor, Remus immediately tried to pry his hand away. “Yeah, what is he then? The boogeyman? He looks even weirder than you!”</p><p>“Nobody,” The teen spat, shoving the slimeball away. “Just some stupid character I made up.”</p><p>“Aw, Romie’s got an imaginary friend. Good for you, Romie!”</p><p>Roman winced at the other’s braying tone, glancing toward the rest of the class. To his relief, his fellow detainees were too busy holding their own conversations or playing on their phones to pay any attention to Remus Bugg. Perhaps there was such a thing as small blessings, after all.</p><p>“Shut up, Bugg,” Roman hissed once he was certain their conversation wasn’t being monitored. “I don’t have an imaginary friend! I told you, he’s just a character I made up. For Mrs. Ellison’s short story assignment in English. So, make like a good insect and buzz off already!”</p><p>Remus grinned, once again inserting himself into Roman’s personal space. “But it’s so <em>boring </em>over there. I’d much rather hear all about this<em> character</em> you made up.” The messy student leered at the artist, a mocking gleam in his eye. “C’mon, Cock-alorum, tell me the story.”</p><p>“<em>Bugg!</em>”</p><p>“What? It’s a real word. It means ‘a boastful, self-important person’. Like you,” Remus said, with afflicted innocence. “‘Course, that’s not the only way that word describes you.”</p><p>Roman flopped forward at his desk, pressing his head against the depiction of Columbus’s journey to the New World. A groan fell from his lips in the same breath, and he turned to squint at Remus. “Bugg,” he scoffed, making no attempt to conceal the derision in his voice. “In as few words as possible, what must I do to be rid of you?”</p><p>“Tell me the story you wrote. Ya know, for ‘English class’.”</p><p>Roman colored slightly. “I <em>did </em>write it for English!”</p><p>“Then tellin’ me about it shouldn’t be a problem, then, should it?” Remus jeered. “Think of it like…a dress rehearsal for school.”</p><p>“Ok, ew.” The artist lifted his head from the book almost reluctantly, pursing his lips as he considered the uncouth character before him. “Why do <em>you </em>care so much anyway? It’s not like you could steal my work or anything; you’re not even in the same class.”</p><p>Remus gasped at the accusation, his hand flying up to cover his heart and his eyes growing impossibly wide in his face. “Why, Romie! I can’t <em>believe </em>you think I’d try to copy off you! That would be a <em>gross </em>infer—infrass—way to break the rules. And not even the fun kind of gross.”</p><p>Roman rolled his eyes. Honestly, how did the Theater Dept. ever agree to let Remus Bugg through their doors? “So?” He demanded, scrunching his face in disgust when Remus broke his ‘wounded’ posture to wipe at his nose—with a finger. “That doesn’t actually answer my question.”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“<em>Why </em>would you want to hear any story I come up with?”</p><p>Remus shrugged, rubbing his hand on his pants. “‘Cause Jan ain’t here, and you’re the only one dumb enough to talk to me when he’s not around.”</p><p>Roman blinked, surprised that Remus knew, and apparently didn’t care, that the majority of the student body only put up with him because he was Janus’s toady.</p><p>“So, are we gonna get this show on the road or huh?”</p><p>“Right,” the artist sighed, glancing not-so-furtively at Mr. Heath. To Roman’s disappointment, the teacher was still vapidly marking papers at his desk, unaware that neither the class in general, nor Remus Bugg in particular, had any intention of completing the assigned readings. “The story I wrote for English class. What can I say? Well, it’s a short story…uh, it’s fictional, definitely a fictional short story, and…um…”</p><p>“Seriously, Romie?” Remus snickered. “Are you really getting stage fright right now? Or are you just too much of a doofus to be able to tell a good story?”</p><p>“I am not!” Roman snapped, a wave of renewed irritation welling up inside of him. In his frustration, he slipped into what Logan and Thomas liked to call his Extra Princey voice, a pattern of speaking which belonged to culture far older than him, one whose existence no one here could ever learn of. “The stories I could tell would be as legends in the pages of history!”</p><p>“Yeah, what legends would they be? <em>The Tales of Mister Gooberhead</em>?”</p><p>“Be silent!” Roman commanded imperiously, earning a surprised eyebrow-raise from his scornful audience. “You speak as an impetuous child and your words are as the squawking of a mockingbird. Listen, if you wish, and so hear tell of a boy whose life was spared by a dark curse, and a quailed hero who, but for a time, found his strength in the love of faithful friends.”</p>
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